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Sun, 18 Feb 2018 04:33:09 +0000Joomla! - Open Source Content Managementen-gbWorkplace Bullying Part 2http://jackiethrongard.me/about-me/blog/entry/workplace-bullying-part-2.html
http://jackiethrongard.me/about-me/blog/entry/workplace-bullying-part-2.htmlIn the previous article, Workplace Bullying Part 1, we talked about what workplace bullying is and the experiences outside and at work that may be indicators that you are being bullied. Before we move on, let me tell you about a time that I was the bully. I am ashamed to admit it but there was an older woman that I worked with in a salon and she was well liked and had the shift that I wanted. So I picked on her at work and made mean jokes that eventually hurt her feelings enough to have her husband call and threaten me at work. By the way, this did not work it simply made me more powerful and I laughed at her for the effort. She left the position and I got her shift, which was the main goal. However, looking back it was a stupid thing to do. I missed working with her and the kindness that she brought with her into the salon every day. My actions led to others treating others badly for the same effect and unfortunately one of my best friends in the salon was targeted and was fired. I am ashamed to have been the bully and to have done this to someone else. I regretted it back then and am still shamed because I was the a-hole at work. My actions were not worth it and I am very sorry to this dear lady that I bullied.

In this article I would like to address who is a typical victim and who is a bully along with some important tips of what to do if you do find that you are being bullied.

Who is a Victim?

The bully see’s you as a threat to their standing or job.

You are a veteran or the most skilled person in the workgroup.

You are independent and refuse to be subservient to the bully.

You are more technically skilled then the bully.

You are well liked at work and have excellent social skills with greater emotional intelligence then the bully.

You are ethical and honest with dignity (whistleblower).

You are non-confrontational so you do not respond to aggression at work.

Who is a Bully?

They cannot stand to share credit for ideas or recognition with a subordinate (usually a boss or veteran employee).

They escalate their campaigns of hatred and intimidation to wrest control of target’s work trying to make them less credible.

They make it so that others side with them and eventually succeed at isolating the victim.

The bully is never reprimanded at work because of excuses like “it’s the way it is around here” or “this is a competitive job”.

They have aggressive tendencies that are labeled by others as ambition.

They kiss up or ingratiated themselves with people of power in the company to not have their actions questioned.

What can you do if you are a Bully?

To put it nicely you are “that guy” at work that everyday your co-workers wish you would get fired or get transferred out of their department or in some cases, hit by a bus. If you’re a bully and you really want to change, it may be beneficial to talk to a counselor about your behaviors at work. Chances are you were led astray to believe that your behaviors were effective or that it is the only way to get things done. There are also great books about what it takes to be a respected and loved leader and how to develop emotional intelligence. I have listed some references for you to start your journey here.

Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (this one also has a handy workbook you can use to develop your skills)

I want to stress that if you really want to change, you can. It’s hard and at times painful to evaluate yourself and the actions that we take, but well worth it.

What can you do if you are bullied?

Talk with HR. Although bullying is not illegal in the U.S., they may be able to assist to diffuse the situation. However, it should be noted that they are not likely to make much of a difference because they have limited power over the bully or their boss.

There are plans out there to discredit bullies. I will not be talking about them because I believe that it isn’t worth the effort. Bullies are excellent liars and manipulators. If you want to play that game go ahead but I think this may be more hurtful to you in the long run and most of the time it makes you a bigger target.

Talk to a counselor about the situation. It sounds weak or that you may be labeled as a crazy person but they may be able to help you through the psychological damage that occurs when you are bullied so that you can get yourself back on track. For the record it’s not weak and it does not make you look crazy. You are doing something to take care of yourself.

The best advice that I can give you is to take some time off to evaluate what you want in a job and a plan to get there. Start to be productive about the situation and make a plan to leave that environment. Success comes from talented people and companies that loose talent due to bullying won’t be in business forever. There is a company that wants your talent and what you have to offer.

Most importantly, it is not your fault that this situation evolved and that you were targeted. Just remember you’re not the first one and you won’t be the last one in that company. You have exceptional value or you would not have been targeted in the first place. As strange as it seems, it is a compliment. Don’t put up with workplace bullying. I know I have watched it happen to others and I was too afraid to say anything and I didn’t understand what was happening at the time. Being older and wiser I would like to say I am sorry to those that I did not standup for and to anyone that may have felt bullied by me.

Read More]]>jackiethrongard@gmail.com (Dr. Jackie Throngard)Human Performance TechnologyMon, 16 Mar 2015 20:24:25 +0000Workplace Bullying Part 1http://jackiethrongard.me/about-me/blog/entry/workplace-bullying-part-1.html
http://jackiethrongard.me/about-me/blog/entry/workplace-bullying-part-1.htmlAs I was finishing my doctorate in education I decided that I should enter the work force and start using my degrees. I found a great fit as a research analyst at the state level and after the interview and job offer was made was excited to start working with a team of people who also seemed to be very dedicated to the improvement of higher education in the state. However, in a very short time I started to see how wrong I really was. At the time I had no idea about workplace bullying and never thought that a group of mature individuals would ever participate in so juvenile an act. I decided to write this article because I know I cannot be the only one who went through this. It was even harder because it was my first “real” job with my education and it completely demoralized and scared me. In fact, after I left this position I didn't want to work in higher education again. I was so put-off by working in a negative environment that I avoided going back to work for over a year. I instead helped out with nonprofits and charities because I found it less threatening. Eventually I finished my degree and after a long hiatus from applying I decided that I wanted to work in a position that really would give me the opportunity to use my skills for the betterment of working and student-kind. I was lucky because I got over this experience; some people do not. In fact according to the Workplace Bullying Institute (2012) study 77% of individuals who are bullied at work lose their jobs: 28% quit, 25% terminated involuntarily, and 25% are forced out by constructive discharge when bullying at work occurs.

For this article I would like to present some information from the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) to help readers understand what workplace bullying is and the signs that you may be in a similar situation yourself. For full information you can visit www.workplacebullying.org

Workplace Bullying Institute defines workplace bullying as repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms:

Verbal abuse

Offensive conduct/behaviors (including nonverbal) which are threatening, humiliating, or intimidating

Work interference — sabotage — which prevents work from getting done

Knowing the signs of being bullied both inside and outside of work is important. Here is a list from WBI to watch out for.

Experiences Outside Work

You feel like throwing up the night before the start of your work week

Your frustrated family demands that you to stop obsessing about work at home

Your doctor asks what could be causing your skyrocketing blood pressure and recent health problems, and tells you to change jobs

You feel too ashamed of being controlled by another person at work to tell your spouse or partner

All your paid time off is used for "mental health breaks" from the misery

Days off are spent exhausted and lifeless, your desire to do anything is gone

Your favorite activities and fun with family are no longer appealing or enjoyable

You begin to believe that you provoked the workplace cruelty

Experiences At Work

You attempt the obviously impossible task of doing a new job without training or time to learn new skills, but that work is never good enough for the boss

Surprise meetings are called by your boss with no results other than further humiliation

Everything your tormentor does to you is arbitrary and capricious, working a personal agenda that undermines the employer's legitimate business interests

Others at work have been told to stop working, talking, or socializing with you

You are constantly feeling agitated and anxious, experiencing a sense of doom, waiting for bad things to happen

No matter what you do, you are never left alone to do your job without interference

People feel justified screaming or yelling at you in front of others, but you are punished if you scream back

HR tells you that your harassment isn't illegal, that you have to "work it out between yourselves"

You finally, firmly confront your tormentor to stop the abusive conduct and you are accused of harassment

You are shocked when accused of incompetence, despite a history of objective excellence, typically by someone who cannot do your job

Everyone -- co-workers, senior bosses, HR -- agrees (in person and orally) that your tormentor is a jerk, but there is nothing they will do about it (and later, when you ask for their support, they deny having agreed with you)

Your request to transfer to an open position under another boss is mysteriously denied

In the coming articles we will talk more about why people bully, the effects of being bullied, and how to stop workplace bullying. If you need help now please see your HR representative.

Read More]]>jackiethrongard@gmail.com (Dr. Jackie Throngard)Human Performance TechnologyMon, 23 Feb 2015 22:12:34 +0000Why Do Students Keep Dropping Out?http://jackiethrongard.me/about-me/blog/entry/why-do-students-keep-dropping-out.html
http://jackiethrongard.me/about-me/blog/entry/why-do-students-keep-dropping-out.htmlA friend of mine really wanted to pursue higher education as a non-traditional student. Unfortunately the experience was less then fulfilling and my friend dropped-out. When I asked her what happened she replied that she didn't really fit in and that the instructors didn't care about her. She said she did the exit interview with someone in student services and just said that she had time constraints because she didn't want to upset anyone. I think as educators this story is very common. We want to understand the obstacles to higher education completion but we are not always able to get honest feedback from our students.

An increased dropout rate can have many factors some of which may include:

Missing to many days of class

Were getting poor grades

Could not keep up with the course work

Thoughts of not being able to complete the degree requirements

Could not get along with teachers or other students

Thought they could not pass the competency exam or certification

Family issues

Money

Work hours changed

Did not develop relationships with other students

They were bored

To combat these dropout rates the following are suggested:

Evaluation of the course work to create engaging real-world experiential learning

More support for struggling learners such as tutoring, counseling, or peer support groups

Having an instructor and/or administration to develop a connection with

More opportunities to interact with fellow students such as peer mentors who are in their program who can assist the newer students or peer study groups to strengthen the co-hort

The school may also consider purchasing student retention software to help analyze the dropout rates. If you are currently using BlackBoard you have the Angel application which can assist you in identifying struggling students. Many institutions ask students to participate in an exit survey to identify obstacles to program completion. I noticed that these exit interviews are usually conducted with someone from the college. Most people will not give honest answers about why they are leaving or dropping out because they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or they become uncomfortable talking about personal issues. It is recommended that exit interview be done online and that the information be placed into a data base where the individual cannot be identified. This should give you more accurate answers to your dropout questions.

Read More]]>jackiethrongard@gmail.com (Dr. Jackie Throngard)Student SuccessThu, 12 Feb 2015 21:14:05 +0000Basic Nonverbal Communication for the United Stateshttp://jackiethrongard.me/about-me/blog/entry/basic-nonverbal-communication-for-the-united-states.html
http://jackiethrongard.me/about-me/blog/entry/basic-nonverbal-communication-for-the-united-states.htmlThis article is meant to make you aware of basic nonverbal cues from others and to help make you a better communicator. After all communication is a two way street. We will be discussing nonverbal communication in the United States covering three main areas: body language, space, and eye contact.

Nonverbal communications are important because they convey a majority of the message that you are trying to send. The human face can produce over 25,000 expressions and the body can assume over a 1,000 different postures or poses that communicate nonverbally to the recipient. The average person makes their opinion of others within 30 seconds of seeing them. They do this by sight 82% of the time, 11% through the ears, and 7% through other senses. In fact 55% of what people "say" comes from our body language or nonverbal communications.

The first step in nonverbal communications is to be aware of your posture. There are two basic types of posture. The first is open, which communicates that you are ready to talk, listen or that you're interested in the other person. The second is a closed posture where you look unapproachable and it communicates discomfort and disinterest in others.

The most common forms of bad posture are head forward and slouching. People who slouch or push their heads forward are sending a message of closed posture and lack of confidence. When a person pushes their head forward and rounds their shoulders they are communicating subservience, humility, and disregard for the person speaking to them. If you work on a computer for a majority of your day chances are you have this posture because you sit like this all day. The second most common bad posture is the slouch, which shows insecurity, illness, boredom or indifference.

Next we are going to talk about blocking behaviors. Blocking, no matter how good or poor your posture, will shut down communication with others and can be a sign that you wish they would stop talking or that you are not interested in what they are saying. The most common of these are the fig leaf, where you place your hands in front of you together; some women will use their purse or a coffee mug. Crossed arms are also a big indicator that a person is not willing to listen or that they feel offended by what you are saying. People will also do subtle things like placing a finger over the lips to indicate that they want you to stop talking. People may even rub their eyes so that they can block out what you are saying because they don't want to hear it.

Spacing is about your proximity to others. It is divided into four categories Public, Social, Personal, and Intimate. When working with clients, students or co-workers you will want to stay in the social spacing, usually between 4-12 feet. However, if you need to grab someone's attention then entering their personal space is the easiest way to obtain and keep their attention, which somewhere between 1.5 -4 feet. If you are addressing a large group then you will most likely find yourself in the public spacing where you will require a microphone or will need to exaggerate your voice and hand gestures to enhance your message. People tend to not take things personally in this type of space since they are distanced from you. Finally the Intimate space from 1.5 feet or less is nota good idea to do with people that you are not friends or better with. People can feel that you are invading their space and this may make them feel distrust or nervousness so your message gets lost because they are distracted.

To help with the common spacing blunders here are three spacing hints to help you be more successful.

If you are not in the appropriate space for your relationship with the individual you are talking to, your message will not be received as you intended.

If you do find that you have violated someone's personal space or misjudge your spacing, take a step backwards and turn your body slightly to the side. This reduces tension and can save that message you were trying to convey.

People who are in positions of power or have higher status in the company will expect more space. This can be due to security or that they are not accustomed to having people close to them. Either way a good rule is to give them an extra five steps in the general rules of personal spacing.

Eye contact is the best way to ensure that your message is being received.You can tell that your listener is engaged in the conversation if they are maintaining eye contact at least 60% of the time. If not, your message may be lost. The best eye contact usually follows these rules:

Maintain eye contact between 5 – 10 seconds and then

Break eye contact to the left or right

Resume eye contact

Do not look down as this can indicate submission or deceit, do not look up as this can indicate frustration or disinterest.

When you practice good eye contact you are communicating that you are engaged with the other person, that you are confident, you are present in the conversation (you're not thinking about what you would rather be doing), and that you are listening.

Poor eye contact can say a lot to the person you're talking with. For instance if someone rolls their eyes or looks up they are saying that they are bored or that they do not care what you are saying. Excessive blinking tells its own story. If someone starts to increase the rate at which they are blinking they are becoming more anxious during your conversation and you are losing them. If you ask a question and the other person starts blinking rapidly, they may be bending the truth. If you or they are constantly looking down, this may be indicating insecurity, shame, or dishonesty. If someone breaks eye contact and is constantly looking around they may be completely uninterested in what you are saying and may be looking for an opportunity to escape.

I know that most of us want to make good eye contact, however, there is a point where eye contact becomes staring and it creates tension and make others feel self-conscious. If you are making eye contact for more than 10 seconds you are staring. Look away, you are not conveying engagement.So what we should take away from this is that nonverbal communications can really say more then what verbal communication can sometimes. Within 30 seconds people will make a judgment about you. It can make or break your relationship with them and once made can be very hard to change. Know the appropriate space to leave between you and the person you are talking to, you don't want your message to be ignored. You can't go wrong with the social space, which is just out of arms reach. Eye contact can communicate that you are listening and engaged but can also be a cue that they are not receiving or that they are not interested in what you are saying.

In the What is Human Performance Technology? article I talked about the organizational and environmental analysis to get us started on the path to increasing human performance and identifying the gap. This article will focus on the cause analysis through the evaluation process after we have implemented a change.

How do you even know where to start with the information that you have gathered? Well let’s separate our information into two groups: the environmental supports and the behavioral issues. Here I would like to introduce you to a new model called the Behavior Engineering Model or BEM that was created by Thomas Gilbert in 1996. The BEM will help you dissect the organizational and environmental analysis that you have already performed. There are six factors to the BEM: data, instrumentation, incentives, knowledge, capacity, and motives. Now in our HPT model we are trying to evaluate what we believe are the causes of the gap between the desired workforce and the actual workforce, which is called a cause analysis. The cause analysis is broken into two major sections; lack of environmental support and lack of repertory behavior.

Working the BEM into the HPT model cause analysis can be broken down as follows: lack of environmental supports should encompass the factors of data, instrumentation, and incentives; lack of repertory behaviors should encompass the factors of knowledge, capacity, and motives.

So here are a list of questions to help you figure out what the cause of your gaps are (I also listed the questions that we used to gather the data from the previous article to help you sort the information):

Environmental:

Data:

Do typical performers know what they are expected to do?

What does the worker know about their position and responsibilities?

What are the expectations about work completion?

How does the process get completed from start to finish?

Is there a set of procedures or a work flow process in place now?

Who is responsible for each step of the process or procedure?

Instruments:

Do they have appropriate tools to do their job?

What are the tools that are available to complete the organization or area objectives?

What tools are currently being used to complete the work?

Incentives:

Are they rewarded for doing a good job?

Behavioral:

Knowledge:

Do they have enough knowledge to do their job?

What skills does the worker have?

What is the society of the organization like?

What is the social responsibility like?

Capacity:

Are they capable of performing, or are they ready to do the job?

What understanding of the process or work flow does this individual have?

Who is performing the work and what has the work that has been completed look like?

Motives:

Are they motivated to perform the job?

What is the motivation to complete the work?

What is the culture of the area that you are working?

After we have answered the above question we have some options to consider. First we need to select an intervention design. One of the biggest mistakes made here is to go right for the training answer, which can be known as hammer syndrome. Hammer syndrome means that you have one tool in your tool box and all problems are nails, which can lead to expensive and inefficient fixes to performance issues. Here is a list of designs/tools that could be used to solve the gap:

Is there a risk to the social or culture wellbeing of the organization by implementing this change?

Are the stakeholders and management engaged?

Once an intervention(s) has been selected you will then need to focus on making that intervention(s) part of the work environment through change management, process consulting, employee development, project management, and/or communications building. This is where the question of what has been tried before and what happened is important. You don’t want to make the same mistake twice.

Finally, just because we have put a new process in place does not mean that it was effective or that it served its original purpose. You will need to evaluate your process or change in the following four areas:

Formative

Performance Analysis

Cause Analysis

Selection Design or Intervention

Summative

Immediate Reactions

Immediate Competence

Confirmative

Continuing Competence (Job transfer; did they learn the new skill and use it?)

Continuing Effectiveness (Is it still working?)

Return on Investment (Did this correct the problem to increase productivity or monetary gain?)

I once heard of an organization that completed data entry for health insurance claims that had a sudden increase in the wrong data being entered into the system. The organization, which was dedicated to quality and customer satisfaction, was eager to correct the problem and decided that additional training was needed to increase employee performance. However, they were lucky to have hired a company who did a complete overview of the organization before the construction of new training materials took place. From observation of employees and looking at environmental factors such as the computers, chairs, desks etc. the task force was able to determine that training was not needed. The company had recently moved into a new building and the majority of errors were being entered between two pm and four pm every day. It was determined from observing employees, that those with computers that received a majority of sunlight during these hours were making the most mistakes because they couldn’t see their screens as well. The company needed blinds for the windows not training. This is a perfect example of Human Performance Technology or HPT.

HPT is used to analyze both the ideal work environment and productivity to the actual work environment and productivity.

HPT stands for

Human: the employees and working divisions of organizations

Performance: activities and measurable outcomes (how many widgets are being produced)

Technology: a systematic (the entire organization as a whole) and systemic (those parts of the organization that work to create a whole) approach to solve practical problems

This article gives helpful hints about how to identify the gap in the performance or how to identify that you need blinds as in the story above. To start a gap analysis you will need to look at two things. The first is at the organizational level or what is the organization trying to accomplish. In our story above, the organization wanted high quality data entry and for customers to be happy. The second thing you will need to know is what the organization is really like or as in our story above they knew that they had higher data entry errors. These sections are known as the organizational analysis and environmental analysis in the HPT Model. For someone who is just learning HPT, it is easiest to take these sections and ask questions or gather data to help determine where we are starting from and where we need to go for improvement. The following are a set of questions that you may want to ask in order to proceed in the process.

Organizational Analysis

What is the vision of this organization?

What is the mission of this organization?

What are the values of the organization?

What are the goals of the organization?

What strategies for process improvement have been tried in the past? What happened?

What are the most basic or critical issues that this area or organization is facing? Why are you there trying to solve this?

Environmental Analysis

World

What is the culture of the area that you are working? Examples: competitive, secretive, or collaborative.

What is the society of the organization like?

What are the cultural values of the individual areas that we are analyzing?

What are the goals of the areas that you will be working with?

What is valued in the area that you are evaluating?

What is the social responsibility like?

Is there a clear chain of command?

Who is responsible for what processes?

What are the repercussions for not meeting responsibilities?

Workplace

What are the tools that are available to complete the organizations or areas objectives?

Who are the stakeholders? Who cares about this?

Who is the competition?

What is the market?

Who else is in the market?

Where does this company rank in the market?

Work

How does the process get completed from start to finish?

Is there a set of procedures or a work flow process in place now?

Who is responsible for each step of the process or procedure?

(Ergonomics) Who is performing the work and what has the work that has been completed look like?

Worker

What does the worker know about their position and responsibilities?

What skills does the worker have?

(Capacity) What understanding of the process or work flow does this individual have? Do they understand?

What is the motivation to complete the work?

What are the expectations about work completion?

After you have gathered the above information you can then create the following two pictures about the organization: a desired performance based on the organizational analysis and an actual performance based on the environmental analysis. Then you can compare these two pictures side by side to evaluate the gap in desired performance and what areas will need your attention to close this gap.